HDD Issues (RAID?)

I currently have a rather large problem. My friend runs a recording studio and his computer decided to have a bit of a freakout the other night and just turned itself off and restarted. Now, I have recieved the following problem:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original setup CD-Rom. Select "R" at the first screen to start repair.

Click to expand...

I've had this problem before. It's a simple enough fix, as i've done it before. However, this isn't the biggest problem.

The problem now is that the hard drives seem to be missing. Upon startup, the computer will mention all the hard drives in the machine, their space, and their names (if any). They also appear in BIOS. As of right now, there are currently two 500GB drives, and a 500GB split into two partitions of 250GB a piece, and these display on the above-mentioned forms without any issue. All are SATA drives. They also appear on the RAID configuration also (RAID0).

However, the Windows XP setup disk refuses to acknowledge their prescence, not allowing me to press F2 at the beginning of the disk startup for Automated Recovery Console or pressing 'R' at the menu to start a repair of the problem. It will mention that it cannot find any hard drives, and this is the same with asking it to install Windows too. The 'Ultimate Windows XP Boot Disk' my friend has also has no effect, with the program being unable to find any disks through any feature of it's own and trying to access them using the command prompt.

I have tried loading RAID drivers by floppy when prompted by the Windows XP setup disk (Intel Matrix Storage Drivers for Intel Motherboard Model #D975XBX downloaded from the Intel website), and even upon loading these Windows will not acknowledge that they are there.

What I have noticed though, is that on the RAID config utility, the version number listed is '5.6.2.1002'. However, on the Intel disk provided (which hasn't been useful to this point either), has an Intel Matrix Raid driver setup with the version number '5.1.0.1022'. Whether it would be an idea to seek out these two particular versions and stick them on a Floppy and give them a shot would do me better, i'm not sure.

I am not entirely sure, but if these disks had gone and died, would they be recognized on the computer start-up screen, BIOS or the Raid Config utility at all, and would it even bother to notify me that a system file is corrupt upon attempting to load Windows XP? As my friend runs a studio, there is thousands of pounds worth of work on the machine and i'm praying it can be saved. If I can just make Windows realise that the drives are there, I can solve the above quoted problem without an issue.

ouch; that is one of the files in the REGISTRY and you will need to perform some recovery.

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1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer. Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:
md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

On the Tools menu, click Folder options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Under Hidden files and folders, click to select Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.
5. Click Yes when the dialog box that confirms that you want to display these files appears.
6. Double-click the drive where you installed Windows XP to display a list of the folders. If is important to click the correct drive.
7. Open the System Volume Information folder. This folder is unavailable and appears dimmed because it is set as a super-hidden folder.

Note This folder contains one or more _restore {GUID} folders such as "_restore{87BD3667-3246-476B-923F-F86E30B3E7F8}".

Note You may receive the following error message:
C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is denied.
If you receive this message, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to gain access to this folder and continue with the procedure:

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Windows XP Professional using the NTFS File System on a Workgroup or Standalone Computer
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders.
4. Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change.
5. Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
6. Click OK.
7. Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Properties.
8. Click the Security tab.
9. Click Add, and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK, and then click OK again.
10. Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it.

NOTE: The System Volume Information folder is now accessible in normal mode to users of Windows XP Home Edition.
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Manually;
9. Open one of these folders to locate a Snapshot subfolder. The following path is an example of a folder path to the Snapshot folder:
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}\RP1\Snapshot
10. From the Snapshot folder, copy the following files to the C:\Windows\Tmp folder:
• _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
11. Rename the files in the C:\Windows\Tmp folder as follows:
• Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

I think you will need another machine to recover data from raid 0 before you continue and try and fix the broken system file (corrupt)
I don't think you lost the drive(yet)
with that kind of costly data raid 0 is bad way to run a system with out a good backup
there's still hope try file scavenger for raid recovery